Sunday, February 26, 2017

A TCM Viewer's Guide for the Week of Feb. 27, 2017

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), starring Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, is one of the Oscar-winning movies airing on TCM this week.

TCM is wrapping up its annual 31 Days of Oscar film festival this week. This year's festival will present Academy Award winning and nominated films in alphabetical order. This week's entries range from T to Z starting with the romance Three Comrades (1938) at 6:45 a.m. Monday morning and ending with best foreign-language film winner Z (1969) at 4 a.m. the following Friday night/Saturday morning.

So, without further ado, let's jump right in to this week's offerings. Just a note: All times are Eastern Standard Time and the highlighted texts have links to full length articles.

Monday, Feb. 27

Jack Benny and Carole Lombard in a publicity still for To Be or Not to Be (1942).

Three daytime picks: The T movies start out with Margaret Sullavan's nominated performance as a young German woman caught up in the tumultuous events of the 1930s in Three Comrades at 6:45 a.m., followed by Rod Taylor as a Victorian scientist who experiments with time travel in best special effects winner, The Time Machine (1960) at 2:15 p.m. Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson warble nominated song "A Gal in Calico" in musical comedy, The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946) at 4:15 p.m.

Prime time lineup: First up is Jack Benny, Carole Lombard and company sending up Nazi Germany in best score nominee, To Be or Not to Be (1942) at 8 p.m. followed by Olivia de Havilland's winning performance as a desperate single mother in To Each His Own (1946) at 10 p.m.

Late night pick: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance to the nominated song, "Cheek to Cheek," in Top Hat (1935) at 5:30 a.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 28

Director John Huston and his father, Walter, with their Oscars for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).

Three daytime picks: The T's continue with the third Topper movie, Topper Returns (1941) at 7:30 a.m., which earned two technical nominations. Marjorie Rambeau earned a best supporting actress nod for playing Joan Crawford's mother in Torch Song (1953) at 11:45 a.m. followed by action-adventure film, Trader Horn (1931) at 5:30 p.m., which earned a best picture nomination for its African location shooting.

Prime time lineup: Director John Huston and his father, Walter Huston, both earned Oscars for their work on the modern Western, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) at 8 p.m., while James Dunn earned an Oscar for playing the patriarch of a tenement family in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) at 10:30 p.m.

Late night pick: The classic courtroom drama, 12 Angry Men (1957) at 4:30 a.m. earned nods for best picture, best director (Sidney Lumet), and best adapted screenplay.

Wednesday, March 1

Kim Novak on the San Francisco set of Vertigo (1958),

Three daytime picks: Start off March with the buddy comedy, Two Arabian Knights (1927), which earned Lewis Milestone a best comedy director award followed by Sopia Loren's winning performance as a woman trying to protect her daughter from the horrors of World War II in Two Women (1960) at 2:30 p.m. Another great Italian film is Umberto D. (1952) at 6:15 p.m., which earned a best original screenplay nomination.

Prime time lineup: Start out the V's with two movies about complicated relationships. First up is Deborah Kerr and Robert Donat as a couple who have grown apart during his World War II service in best original story winner Vacation from Marriage (1945) at 8 p.m. followed by James Stewart's dangerous obsession with Kim Novak in Vertigo (1958) at 10 p.m, which was nominated for two technical Oscars.Late Night Pick: Best cinematography nominee Vivacious Lady (1938) follows professor James Stewart's marriage to nightclub singer Ginger Rogers.

Thursday, March 2

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

Three daytime picks: The morning lineup includes two movies about Nazi oppression. First, Francis Lederer plays a concert pianist who loses his memory in a Nazi prison in best score nominee, Voice in the Wind (1944) at 6:15 a.m., while Paul Lukas earned a best actor trophy for playing a resistance fighter who is hunted by the Nazis in Watch on the Rhine (1943) at 11:15 a.m. Finally, Laurel and Hardy bumble their way through the wild West in best score nominee Way Out West (1937) at 3:15 p.m.

Primetime lineup: The landmark musical West Side Story (1961) at 8 p.m. hauled in 10 Oscars, including best picture, best director for Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, and supporting wins for George Chakiris and Rita Moreno.

Late Night Pick: Catch up on the Bette Davis-Joan Crawford feud with best costume winner, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) at 11 p.m.

Friday, March 3

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year (1942).

Three daytime picks: The daytime lineup starts with Elizabeth Taylor's winning performance as a frustrated housewife in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) at 9:30 a.m. followed by Victor Sjostrom's remarkable performance as a professor who looks back on his life in best original screenplay nominee, Wild Strawberries (1957) at noon. Finally, Greta Garbo plays a socialite who embarks on a tragic romance with John Gilbert in A Woman of Affairs (1928) at 6:15 p.m.

Prime time lineup: The sparkling screenplay for the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn vehicle Woman of the Year (1942) at 8 p.m. earned an Oscar. Next up is the horror-movie spoof Young Frankenstein (1974) at 10 p.m, which earned a best adapted screenplay nomination.

Late night pick: Wrap up the 31 Days of Oscar Festival with best score nominee The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) at midnight, which inspired this year's 14-time nominee, La La Land (2016).

Saturday, March 4

TCM returns to its regular lineup with an evening of movies starring actress Barbara Harris starting with A Thousand Clowns (1965) at 8 p.m., in which she plays a child welfare worker who gets mixed up with nonconformist writer Jason Robards, followed by her portrayal of a fake psychic in director Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Family Plot (1976) at 10:15 p.m. Second-Hand Hearts (1981) at 12:30 a.m. follows a desperate widow (Harris) who marries a lonely drifter (Robert Blake).

Sunday, March 5

Don't miss the debut of the TCM Film Noir Franchise, which is airing every Sunday at 10 a.m. This week, Film Noir Foundation President Eddie Muller will debut the series with the seminal noir, The Maltese Falcon (1941).

The prime time lineup features two thrillers starting with Michael Caine as a writer who tries to steal a play written by one of his students (Christopher Reeve) in Deathtrap (1982) at 8 p.m. Next, James Coburn, James Mason, and Raquel Welch get involved in a murder-mystery game that becomes all too real in The Last of Sheila (1973) at 10:15 p.m.

Silent Sunday Nights returns with two movies starring Jack Holt: Ducks and Drakes (1921) at 12:30 a.m. and The Smart Set (1928) at 1:30 a.m. TCM Imports is back with Babette's Feast (1987) at 3 a.m. and Gertud (1964) at 5 a.m.